May 21, 2010

The pronunciation of 'scone'

Seeing this article in The Guardian about whether the cream or the jam should be put on the scone first when making a traditional cream tea reminded me of the heated arguments we would have at university about the correct pronunciation of the word 'scone' -- should it rhyme with 'gone' or 'bone'? Unlike some words and sounds eg the vowels a and u, it wasn't a north/south thing but seemed completely random and quirky. What was amazing was how much passion the subject generated. I had always said 'scone' to rhyme with 'gone' and thought the 'bone' pronunciation was very posh and pretentious. Those who said 'scone' to rhyme with 'bone', I discovered, felt exactly the same about my pronunciation. The OED is no help on the matter, giving both pronunciations (with the 'bone' sound first, if that means anything). John Wells, Emeritus Professor of Phonetics at UCL conducted a survey and found that two-thirds of the population prefer the 'gone' pronunciation. That pronunciation was overwhelmingly preferred in Scotland, even though, just to confuse matters, the historic Scottish village of Scone, once the capital of the Kingdom of Alba (Scotland), and original home of the famous Stone of Scone, is pronounced 'scoon' to rhyme with 'spoon'.

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Though it didn't appear last night to provide a definitive answer for a 3-way social networking site mini survey I initiated based on the regional variations/poshness/simple prejudice around the pronunciation of the word 'scone,' your post at least enlivened the, er ... 'debate.'

Maybe I'd have spotted the definitive answer if I'd started earlier in the evening? ;)

Thanks, Barrie; glad to hear it! Funnily enough, I had a cream tea with a group of people yesterday and the conversation got very heated over whether one should put the jam on the scone first, or the cream - the people around the table demonstrated both methods. The scone has a lot to answer for!

Some next level old post, but I am still continuously amazed at how random it seems to be. I live in London, as do most of my friends, most of us our whole lives (or at least, certainly until our pronunciation of scone had been consolidated), and I can't work out any pattern in who pronounces it which way, same for everyone I meet and seem to compulsively ask the question to.